Who is your favorite literary villain?

Who is your favorite literary villain? Mine was always present but never really seen - Big Brother from 1984.

I did love 1984... but not nearly as much as George Orwell's essays...

I think my favorite literary villains are ... the kids themselves from Lord of the Flies ...

and Cholly Breedlove from Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye

I've never read Toni Morrison, but now I feel inspired to.

Fyodor Pavlovitch from The Brothers Karamazov

Steerpike from Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast books springs to mind, Balzac's Vautrin in several novels such as Cousin Bette and of course Kenneth Widmerpool in Anthony Powell's twelve book marathon A Dance to the Music of Time.

Although not literary per se Mrs. Coulter in Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass is without doubt the most evil character in modern fiction winning by a nose over Cormac McCarthy's Judge Holden in Blood Meridian although he has to win the title of grossest villain - probably of all time.

Inspector Javert from Les Miserables. He's the prototype for the shape-shifting molten metal freak in The Terminator and Agent Smith in the Matrix - the idea of seemingly unstoppable self-righteousness being particularly terrifying to me (hence my relief at the outcome of the recent election).

If you want a great villian, why compromise? Go for the Devil himself. Mephestophiles from Faustus. He made no secret of his evil, fully embracing it as so few villians do in either literature or cinema. Not only that but when he argues with Faustus against the merits of love, chartity, kindess, and other goodie-goodie things, his words are calm, articulate, and convincing. Mephestophiles was the basis that all movie-Devils were based upon. He was the guy that could convince you that it was a good idea to sell your soul.

Or Satan in Milton's Paradise Lost, tempting Adam and Eve into death because he's PO'd at God for crushing his palace rebellion.

Lestat from Interview with the Vampire. He was so delightful in his evilness that you had to love him.

Honoré de Balzac's Vautrin, for one.

Melmoth, the Wanderer, for another.

And how about the narrator of Kreuzer Sonata by Tolstoy

Moriarty. The ultimate evil genius. He was so much fun to read.

Definitely 'Steerpike' from 'Gormenghast'.

Officer Merrick from 'The Raj Quartet'

Willie Collins in 'Andersonville' is a new addition to 'characters I love to hate'

Milo Minderbinder from Catch-22, by Joseph Heller

Back to the classics. Long John Silver is probably Stevenson's most memorable character.

Professor Umbridge from Harry Potter.

P.J Moriarty...

Having recently read Oliver Twist, I'll nominate the Artful Dodger. Cute + sly.

>15 TKKrug:, absolutely! Gawd, she is just awful. I hate her more than Voldemort.

George Warleggan in Winston Graham's Poldark novels set in Cornwall just before and after 1800.

Blue Duck and Moriarty are my favorites.

My favourite villian is capitan Hook at Piter Pan :)

Yeats in Max Barry's Lexicon is pure evil. Just finished that book.

Bellatrix Lestrange from Harry Potter :)

Ma'elKoth from Heroes Die is one of my favorites. Considering his setting, he's actually a halfway decent person who uses his authority and immense power to improve living conditions for his people. However, he's the antagonist of the story because pitting Caine against him makes for good television.

Haydon from Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. The man who betrayed everything. The tentacles of one mans fraud destroyed hundreds of lives.

I would say Moriarty as well.

Shakespeare's Richard III, and the Carnival Master in Something Wicked This Way Comes. Count Fosco in The Woman in White. Mrs. Danvers, maybe. Iago.

I agree that Umbridge is worse that Voldemort -- it's got something to do with the way manipulation and pretense seem worse than honest and upfront evil. For that same reason, I'd pick Grima or Saruman over Sauron for evilness. And while Moriarty is the uber criminal, the men from The Speckled Band and The Solitary Cyclist, who trapped women in a scary situation, were worse.

>26 southernbooklady:, manipulation and pretense might be it. Or maybe, when it's clearly "evil by choice" rather than "evil by nature", same as we might forgive a wild animal who mauls someone to death, but not a murderer.

Not sure that I have a favourite villain, in the sense that I actually "like" them, but I must offer my congratulations to George R. R. Martin for creating a character whom I loathe as much as I do in the form of Prince Jofferey. (Unfortunately, said loathing was also part of why I abandoned the book.) Jofferey usurped the title of "most despised literary character" from Tolstoy's Fyodor Ivanovich Dolokhov. He held that spot for some time.

Oh, WeeTurtle, do take it up again. Joffrey will get his just desserts.

>31 varielle:

I saw the death scene on tv, and have watched the "jofferey slap" gif a whole bunch. It was actually the politics and intrigue that got to me the most. It's just not something I enjoyed reading. I did make it a good chunk in but decided it wasn't worth the anxiety it was giving me. I switched to Erikson. Similar sort of thing, but a softer approach.

Regarding Erikson, I heard that Malazan, Book of the Fallen was written prior to Game of Thrones, but it was GoT getting published that opened to the door that sort of grim-dark military fantasy.

>32 WeeTurtle:, A Game of Thrones was published in 1996. Gardens of the Moon was written in the early nineties but didn't find its publisher until 1999, about the same time as A Clash of Kings came out.